Public-health researchers from Boston University are preparing to investigate the cause of chronic kidney disease among workers at Nicaragua’s largest sugar company. The study, announced last month, forms part of an internal probe by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a private-sector lending arm of the World Bank. The IFC ombudsman’s office is studying whether the IFC failed to comply with its own social and environmental policies when it loaned the company US$55 million in 2006. Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited, also the nation’s top ethanol exporter, has agreed to provide medical records for the health investigation, which will be overseen by the IFC ombudsman’s office. (The sugar company did not respond to an EcoAméricas request for an interview.) The Boston University study marks... [Log in to read more]
